From the Archivist

Gardeners’ Question Time, BGS 1941-1942

In the current climate, I thought these gems might cheer the readership.

Both the problematic weather and the context of climate change, and the frequent advice that we should all take to gardening and include a pond for wildlife, are encapsulated here.

But who is AG? And are AG and Nature Lover one and the same?

There is a hint of Lewis Carroll here, and I feel that Alan Titchmarsh is the main influence rather than Monty Don. Has anyone any answers? Is AG among our readers?

Answers, as ever, on a postcard, to abradley@bgs.bristol.sch.uk

The Grammar School Chronicle

July 1941 In Concrete Form

The shapely pool now under construction at the far corner of the cricket field promises well and should soon provide a teeming microcosm of the humbler forms of life. Many of the quaint creatures disporting at present only as diagrams on the grave pages of the textbook will freely express themselves in an ample expanse of sheltered water.

The site is countersunk to ensure this shelter, the position being otherwise somewhat exposed, and also to increase the total surface area, and so allow a “surround” suitable for dry land, plant and animal communities.

The bog should prove a most attractive feature, for though restricted in size it will suffice to display, inter alia, both the formidable nature of the Sundew and the beauty of that fine local flower, the Marsh Orchid.

Digging and cementing were great adventures. Well over 100 tons of earth had to be removed. Often we were hard pressed for wheelbarrows and materials, but parents and boys responded to every appeal, and even the local professionals confess that our unique feature of staggered brickwork is new to building construction.

Great will be our day when the first ripple of wavelets greets the morning breeze! Special thanks are due to Mr. Coleman, Mr. Small and Mr. Pursey for very generous gifts of cement, stone and water glass respectively.

A.G.

SPRING

Dear Mr. Editor,

What a long winter we have had, have we not? This morning, however, all was changed. It was suddenly revealed to me that the joyous season of the year had come at last. I felt the poet’s urge upon me. It was an exciting experience. I am sending you the little verses so that you may share the thrill with me.

Yours,

“NATURE LOVER”

Gone is last winter’s hacking cough, New health is borne on ev’ry breeze; The elephants are pairing off And nesting in the rhubarb trees.

The happy slugs, with joyful song, Merrily greet the dawn’s first ray; With peacocks’ pride, the whole day long The guinea pigs their tails display.

On nimble feet the gladsome sows Flit to and fro ‘twixt flow’r and flow’r; And caterpillars ‘neath the boughs Delight to frolic hour by hour.

Now dandelions scent the air Where wheels in endless flight the cow: And spiders twitter everywhere; Umbrellas gleam, in England---now!

The goldfish chant their vernal lay; On outspread wings the hedgehogs soar; In short, all Nature seems to say, “Awake, for Spring is here once more.”

The Grammar School Chronicle

March 1942

LE LAC – A MERE IDYLL

Slowly the vision shapes, as slowly toil The faithful few, - in concrete, stone, or soil. Smoothed now the debris hillocks, cleared the bricks, Returned the spades, removed the pile of picks.

Now crowns the rim a rampart ridge of rocks, Strong to withstand all ordinary shocks, The spacious bowl, - the island of our dreams, A coral casket in this ocean seems.

Soon shall the promised fish their faces show, Minnows manoeuvring in the maze below Seeking slim nymphs (the larval form of flies), Or seizing from the sands some stouter prize.

O, ardent youth that spellbound still doth lean On perilous brink brooding this blissful scene, Beware lest meditation so intent Plunge thee in thine ancestral element.

A.G.

Dear ‘Older’ Old Bristolians:

I have been researching the School under the Direct Grant system in the 1940s onwards, and I have a question for those of you who did not get a Direct Grant place but came as fee paying pupils.

My question is, for those paying fees, was there any sort of sliding scale; was there some level of means testing or some other system that meant that not every fee paying pupil paid the same fees?

Please send any information, however incomplete the memory, to me abradley@bgs.bristol.sch.uk

Thank you

Anne Bradley

Archivist